Anyway, I'm gonna have trouble explaining how I feel about this. It's so odd to say, but it's just the most adorable, cutest statement I've heard in a long time. :biggrin1: I think the innocence of the statement is what is so adorable. Calling a cop "bro."

Okay, that aside, the cops are bastards. Flame me on that one. Tell me how your uncle, brother, father, son, is a cop and serves this country, does his honor, blah, blah, blah, ... doesn't change the fact that some cops are brutal and barbaric and scary, and they shouldn't have tased that boy.

Gold Member

I've known some well cool law enforment officers who scored me the best drugs and I'd be happy to call 'bro' - I've known a lot of bastards too - I'd happily call them 'bro', if I thought it would piss them off. :biggrin:

I'm late to this one too - I guess we ain't in with the kool kidz, huh? Bummer

Anyway, I'm gonna have trouble explaining how I feel about this. It's so odd to say, but it's just the most adorable, cutest statement I've heard in a long time. :biggrin1: I think the innocence of the statement is what is so adorable. Calling a cop "bro."

Okay, that aside, the cops are bastards. Flame me on that one. Tell me how your uncle, brother, father, son, is a cop and serves this country, does his honor, blah, blah, blah, ... doesn't change the fact that some cops are brutal and barbaric and scary, and they shouldn't have tased that boy.

I think his name is Andrew Meyer. I think he is a student at University of Florida. He interrupted a speech by John Kerry and then got mouthy when he was given a chance to ask a question at the podium. The rest of the story can be found with a Google search.

Tasing is a tool to be used above soft compliance techniques and before higher levels of force. It only hurts while its on, hurts like a motherfucker, but it goes away. It also provides excellent results without bodily harm.

Making it unwarranted here was that he was exercising his right to free speech ... may have been an issue of decorum, a non-violent act; Which is why I ahd asked which boy --- if the tasing had been someone commitiing an act of violence, was given the opportunity to desist, and did not, then it would have been OK., IMHO.

Making it unwarranted here was that he was exercising his right to free speech ... may have been an issue of decorum, a non-violent act; Which is why I ahd asked which boy --- if the tasing had been someone commitiing an act of violence, was given the opportunity to desist, and did not, then it would have been OK., IMHO.

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That is inaccurate. He actively resisted officers, which is a violent act.

Am I reading this wrong --- he had already been restrained, and had offered to leave on his own (gain, after exercising his right toi free speech, and the only issue was decorum?

After speaking for one minute and twenty seconds, at the request of event organizers, Andrew Meyer's microphone was turned off, and two University of Florida police officers attempted to escort him away.[13]sic]." [12] Some members of the crowd began to cheer and applaud. This physical contact by the police occurred right after Meyer remarked, &#8220;Thank you for cutting my mic!&#8221; Kerry responded to the police action, "That's all right, let me answer his question."[10] , but two police officers continued to hold Meyer and attempted to escort him towards the exit. Meyer repeatedly asked why he was being arrested. He struggled for several seconds[11] shouting, "Get off me! What are you doing? What is going on?" while a third police officer kept a Taser aimed at the student. Meyer managed to get back towards the stage and stated, "I want to stand and listen to the answers to my questions!" A fourth officer joined in, and single-handedly managed to remove Meyer to the back of the auditorium while being escorted by the three other officers. Meyer was carried part of the way by officer King, holding Greg Palast's book up in the air with his one free arm and shouting, "Why are you arresting me? Help! Help!" Close to the exit Meyer broke free for a short moment and then was wrestled to the ground. Two more officers joined in and Meyer was now held down by four officers on the body and two on the legs. The officers managed to handcuff only one hand.
As Meyer requested to be allowed to leave of his own accord, they informed him that he no longer had a say in the matter and threatened several times to taser him if he did not comply. Meyer asked again to leave, and yelled "Don't tase me, bro, don't tase me!" ("Don't tase me, bro" became a popular catch phrase soon afterwards, appearing on tee shirts and other media, even reaching #1 on Time Magazine's "Top 10 T-shirt Worthy Slogans" in 2007) but was drive stunned (referred to in the police report as a "contact tase") in the shoulder by officer Nicole Lynn Mallo with her department-issued X-26 Taser when he failed to comply.[11][10][2].
I managed to take control of Meyer's right hand and restrain it into one side of my handcuffs. Due to Meyer's erratic flailing, the inability to attain Meyer's left arm from his resistance, and increased potential for injury with one cuff on, Sgt. King attempted to deploy a contact tase to no avail. He then instructed Mallo to apply a contact tase to gain compliance in order to place Meyer's left hand into the other cuff. Mallo gave verbal commands and informed Meyer that he would be tased if he did not comply. Once Mallo applied the tase, Wise assisted Meyer's left arm to where I was able to apply the other cuff. Once he was restrained, he was escorted out of the Auditorium where I checked the fitting and applied the double-locked function on the cuffs. Steven Blank, ACCENT chairman, later said &#8220;They (the police) acted independently of Accent [

He was nearly restrained, but had a free arm and was flailing about, making the officers unable to cuff him. At that point, LEOs need to get him restrained by any means to remove his ability to injure an officer, or get ahold of an officers weapon. He did offer to walk out, but his actions leading up to that had moved it beyond that.

Gold Member

Here is the link to Dont Tase Me Bro. This is a complex issue that was discussed at great length all over the Internet when it happened. I think the security guards were excessive, but it is probably due to their lack of training. They were obviously insecure about their need to control the situation and reacted out of fear.

On the other hand, the questioner was also a kind of grandstander, and was looking to make a scene. He asked someone to record him before he went up to the mike. He either wanted to disrupt the proceedings or he wanted to get his 15 seconds of fame (yes its down to seconds now, since there are more avenues in which to become famous) on YouTube.

Ironically, Kerry was the one who was least concerned with the guy's out of control questioning.

This is the amazing thing about the Internet. Everything of any interest ends up on the web and is endlessly discussed and examined. I think this is the more interesting part of this event than the actual tasing. Its even more interesting that the phrase "Don't Tase Me, Bro" has entered popular culture and you can find it on T-shirts. Between this and Chocolate Rain, the Internet is transforming the idea of popular culture into a grass-roots viral thing that spreads faster than the speed of sound.

Making it unwarranted here was that he was exercising his right to free speech ... may have been an issue of decorum, a non-violent act; Which is why I ahd asked which boy --- if the tasing had been someone commitiing an act of violence, was given the opportunity to desist, and did not, then it would have been OK., IMHO.

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What freedom of speech? One's rights end when it intrudes on others. His intention was to disrupt the assembly and even he admitted to that, therefore his rights (to free speech) ended.

I am certainly no expert on appropriate use of force in such circumstances. Being who I am, I tend to err on a little too much force rather than too little. There have to be consequences for actions. When did people come the conclusion that there should be no real consequences for violating others rights and refusing to obey police orders?

Those officers aren't his "bro", they represent the authority of the government (though if I remember correctly they were campus security). By saying that, he thinks he is their equal. That is the height of egalitarian arrogance.

VerifiedGold Member

I think his name is Andrew Meyer. I think he is a student at University of Florida. He interrupted a speech by John Kerry and then got mouthy when he was given a chance to ask a question at the podium. The rest of the story can be found with a Google search.

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security guards not cops first of all second, dude should have known doing something that dumb that you don't get away with shit like in the states, plus that was almost 3 months ago hehe, you want real tazer incidents look up the guy in Ontario canada and the one in vancouver, or heck search tasers and rcmp and youll find like 3 deaths due to use of them in canada, that boy got it easy and is lucky he was no longer a presidential candidate, other wise he might have got his ass shot

It cracks me up to even read the title of this thread. It makes me laugh everytime i see it. I also found it hilarious the way Kerry just kept on talking acting like nothing was going on in the background. Mainly because it just seems fitting that he would have been going on about himself whilst someone was getting electroshocked.